Man Declared Brain Dead Woke Up Crying as Doctors Prepared to Remove His Organs

We are revisiting a shocking Kentucky case that first made headlines after a man who had been declared brain dead allegedly woke up crying just as doctors were preparing to remove his organs for donation.

Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover was taken to Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in Richmond, Kentucky, on Oct. 25, 2021, after suffering cardiac arrest caused by a drug overdose.

His sister, Donna Rhorer, said doctors told the family the next day that Hoover showed “no reflexes” and had “no brain activity, no brain waves.”

Based on what the medical team told them, the family made the heartbreaking decision to take him off life support. They were later told Hoover was a registered organ donor.

But Donna said she noticed something unsettling before the planned organ donation procedure.

She recalled seeing her brother open his eyes and appear to follow family members around the room. When she raised concerns with doctors, she said they were told it was “just reflexes” and a “normal thing.”

“We had his honor walk Friday afternoon,” Donna recalled. “During his honor walk, his eyes started opening up.”

“He was tracking,” she said. “His eyes were tracking us around. We were told it was just reflexes, just a normal thing. Who are we to question the medical system?”

Then, as medical staff prepared to remove Hoover’s heart for donation, the unthinkable happened.

He woke up.

Donna told WKYT News that about an hour into the planned surgery, a doctor came out and told the family Hoover “wasn’t ready.”

“He woke up,” she said.

Donna also said the family later learned something they had not been told at the time: Hoover had allegedly woken up earlier that morning during a heart catheterization.

“If we had known that, then clearly we would have known he wasn’t brain dead,” she said.

After the procedure was stopped, doctors reportedly advised Donna to take her brother home and keep him comfortable, saying his prognosis was grim.

But years later, Donna has continued caring for him.

She said she did not learn the full details of what allegedly happened in the operating room until later, when a former Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates employee contacted her. According to Donna, the former employee claimed Hoover had been “thrashing” on the operating table and “crying visibly” at the hospital.

Baptist Health said in a statement that patient safety is its “highest priority.”

“We work closely with our patients and their families to ensure our patients’ wishes for organ donation are followed,” the hospital said.

Reports say the Kentucky attorney general’s office and a federal agency that oversees organ procurement operations have looked into the case.

For Hoover’s family, the ordeal has left them shaken and searching for answers about how a man they were told was brain dead could wake up moments before his organs were set to be removed.